Wax Worm Caterpillar will eat plastic shopping bags?

Researchers reporting in Current Biology on April 24th may be on track to find a solution to plastic waste. The key is a caterpillar commonly known as a wax worm. Plastic is incredibly difficult to break down in landfills – lasting hundreds of years to decompose. The fact that people use 1 trillion plastic bags a year and a good percentage is still landfilled makes this research potentially very important.